Slowly but surely, private equity money is making its way into football—at multiple levels.

The NFL remains on track to begin allowing franchises to sell minority ownership stakes to institutional investors by the end of this year. “We believe that would be something that could make sense for us in a limited fashion,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in July. That limit is 10% of any one franchise, which is lower than the threshold set by the NFL’s American counterparts at the NBA, NHL, and MLB, some of which allow private equity firms to hold as much as a 30% stake.

October’s owners meetings in Atlanta have been a loose deadline for when the NFL would like to approve its new private equity investment policy. This week, the league is said to be meeting with major firms like Arctos Partners, the Carlyle Group, Blackstone, CVC Capital Partners, and Dynasty Equity, according to Sportico. 

Supply and Demand

No NFL team is currently up for grabs, but last summer’s $6.05 billion sale of the Commanders seems to have pushed the rest of the league to speed up the process around private equity. “Raising $3 billion is a lot of work,” new Washington owner Josh Harris has since said. Last October, the league formed a new special owners committee that was tasked with evaluating institutional investors.

“The value of the franchises are reaching such levels, the opportunity to have more flexibility to provide financing and keep a family in control without having to sell major blocks of their ownership—there are models that can work,” Falcons owner Arthur Blank (above) told Front Office Sports in February.

Doing Your Homework

U.S. private equity leaders are also targeting college football as a new investment avenue.

The Big 12 is exploring bringing on a private equity partner to help bankroll the conference’s future as it tries to compete financially with heavyweights at the Big Ten and SEC. CVC has had conversations with the Big 12, in addition to its reported upcoming talks with the NFL. That firm has also invested in the WTA, LaLiga, and Premiership Rugby in the U.K.

Last year, Florida State had talks with Sixth Street about the private equity giant investing in the school’s athletic department. This year, RedBird Capital Partners and Weatherford Capital (of which former FSU quarterback Drew Weatherford is a partner) announced the launch of an investment arm, Collegiate Athletic Solutions, intended to infuse up to $200 million into athletic departments.

Editors’ note: RedBird IMI, of which RedBird Capital Partners is a joint venture partner, is an investor in Front Office Sports.

James Dolan has reaffirmed one of the oldest maxims in sports: Winning sells.

Dolan, owner of the NHL’s Rangers and NBA’s Knicks, and his Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. reported Tuesday a record-level set of corporate earnings that showed some of the impact from the deep playoff runs enjoyed this past spring by the two teams.

MSG Sports said it posted record revenue of $1.03 billion for its fiscal 2024, up by 16% from the prior year—and operating income of $146 million, an increase of 71% and also a company record. For the fiscal fourth quarter ending June 30, MSG Sports generated $227.3 million revenue, up by 79% year over year, and $52.3 million in operating income, dramatically reversing a comparable loss of $12.2 million from that period in 2023.

The figures follow a high-profile quarter in which both the Knicks and Rangers reached the second round of their respective league playoffs, the first time that’s happened since 2013, while the hockey team advanced to the Eastern Conference finals. The postseason runs helped recall the team’s famed summer of 1994 that ended with a Stanley Cup title for the Rangers and seven-game NBA Finals loss for the Knicks.

“Our fans’ enthusiastic support for our teams this past year was evident in many areas of our business, from ticket sales and per-cap spending at the Garden to local TV ratings and increased engagement on social [media],” said MSG Sports COO Jamaal Lesane, in an earnings call with analysts. 

There is already a carryover to the upcoming NHL and NBA seasons, with the two teams’ combined ticket renewal rates standing at about 94%.

Regional Angst

In the earnings call, Madison Square Garden Sports also continued the objections from Dolan about the NBA’s recently completed $77 billion set of national media-rights deals. Dolan has argued the agreements, despite the huge increase in fees compared to the current pacts, cut into his ability to generate revenue from local broadcasts.

“The [regional sports network] industry is already facing a challenging environment,” Lesane said. “The reduction in local telecasts [in the new NBA deals] further impacts this valuable part of our ecosystem, which teams have relied on to drive enhanced fan engagement.”

More Dolan Growth

The New York sports teams are not the only growing part of the Dolan empire. The Sphere, the next-generation $2.3 billion venue in Las Vegas that opened last year to great fanfare, continues to awe both sports and music fans. The NHL recently used the building to great success for its 2024 draft, while UFC will be in there for an event Sept. 14. Most recently, Dead & Company completed a 30-date residency there, following prior concert stints by U2 and Phish.

Sphere Entertainment Co., the corporate entity that includes the Sphere and Dolan’s RSN operations, will report its next set of quarterly earnings Wednesday.